The Internet and other similar telecommunication technologies supply the infrastructure necessary for the creation of information services that provide very specific data for their users. “Web cams” represent one category of these services. Web cam sites provide cameras which deliver motion, or still, real time images from locations that would be of interest to their users. For example, web cams have been positioned to overlook beaches popular with surfers allowing them to check the waves before going to the beach. Similarly, other cameras are positioned overlooking highways allowing commuters to check traffic along their route.
These simple web cams tend to be limited to fixed locations and views. Therefore, some users may not receive exactly the information they desire. For example, a surfer using the web cam to check on waves may wish to zoom the camera in to check a wave's quality, or zoom out to see the overall size of a wave. This limitation has been addressed by giving users the ability to control the camera and direct it to exactly where they wish. This ability, however, creates problems allocating control of the camera. If many users wish to point the camera in different directions at the same time there must be some way to choose among the various requests. The problem has been addressed by letting the users control the camera on a first come first serve basis. This solution, however, is very simplistic and forces all the users to watch what ever the person currently controlling the camera wishes to see.
Another problem facing web cam providers, and other similar services, is how to receive a return on their investment. Most sites offering this type of real time data have either provided the service without an intention to profit from it, or used it as a method to draw users to their site. The sites that do use cams to generate income have attempted to do so through advertising, by selling memberships to use the site, or by charging an individual to control the cam for a period of time. These solutions, however, do not offer a very suitable way for selling this type of data. Advertising does not efficiently link the value of the service to the income received because advertisers and not the users are paying for the service. Furthermore, on sites of particularly local or individualized interest there may not be enough users to profit from the sale of advertising. Charging a membership fee is a better solution but this still does not address the problem of multiple users who wish to move the device in different directions at the same time. Letting one user control the camera at a time, and charging that user, solves the previous problem, but, limits the provider's return because only one user is charged when others may be willing to pay for the same information.